NTV
The Brief
Popular Japanese TV station, Nippon Television (NTV), screens a weekend movie slot, The Friday Roadshow. It is an indelible part of Japan’s TV culture and traditionally begins with an animated intro. For many years this was a piece made by Studio Ghibili, home of the renowned film director Hayao Miyazaki.When NTV decided to update this intro they asked Airside to come up with a new idea. The brief was to appeal to their everyman target audience, but with a crisp modern touch and impact that would suit the High Definition broadcasting format.
Our Solution
With a fairly open brief, Airside’s first task was to decide on a concept. Knowing Japanese pop culture, it was obvious that the piece should be character based. Soon we had the central idea of animals visiting their local woodland cinema and our design team worked on various stylistic approaches.Once NTV decided on their favourite, we developed the world and the characters populating it. Though it wasn’t part of the brief we gave each character a name and background story, as this kind of detail is appreciated in Japan.
Once the designs and storyboard were completed, our animation team under Airside direction brought the story to life. We also made a version with the characters dressed in tuxedos, to be used whenever the Friday Roadshow broadcast a big premiere.